Abortion – it’s time to decriminalise

Last Friday the Abortion Supervisory Committee released their latest report calling for a review of the 40-year-old legislation which governs New Zealand’s abortion service.

Most people in Aotearoa think abortion is a health issue, not a justice issue. The reality that one in four women in this country have had an abortion shows that many New Zealanders accept that having an abortion shouldn’t be a crime.

The Green Party supports the decriminalisation of abortion because we trust women to make decisions that are best for them and their whānau/family. We want to ensure equal access to all potential options are available to pregnant women.

We want to change the abortion laws because:

The fact that 99% of abortions are approved on ‘mental health’ grounds reveals the dishonesty of the current legal situation.

The time taken to see two consultants means abortions happen later in the pregnancy. This is more dangerous for the woman, and it makes it difficult to access medical abortions (those which are conducted using medicine rather than surgery), which can only be performed at under 9 weeks’ gestation.

Rape (sexual violation) is not grounds for abortion under NZ law.

To reduce the stigma and judgement that happens over the reasons a woman chooses to have an abortion (e.g. rape being seen as more justified grounds for abortion than poverty).

We also want to change the presumption that currently exists within medical culture and wider society, encouraged by the wording in the legislation, that if there is a significant disability diagnosis then an abortion is assumed to be desirable.